Flare up – and I know I brought it on myself!

The OT gave me a very sound lecture on pacing myself and how important it is! Over the past two weeks I have dismally failed to pace myself, and over the past couple of days I paid the price! I had been feeling much better, and we’re fantastically busy at work, so I’ve just been getting on with it. Getting on with it means working from 8.30 to 6.30 most nights, and not taking a proper lunch break, although I really DO try to get up every hour and have a stretch.

And, because I was feeling so much better, I didn’t crash at the weekends either. It was great – I was busy, I was enjoying myself at the weekends, why slow down?

This Saturday, I had the answer to that question! I was full of aches and pains when I woke up, attributed it to morning stiffness and thought no more about it. But Sunday I was really quite unwell and hardly got out of bed. I was sleeping badly because I woke up in pain, and I felt like everything was back to square one.

The good news is that after a much reduced working day yesterday and a rest all day Sunday, I feel much better today. The bad news is that apparently if one keeps doing this it’s not just a vicious circle … as in feel great, be madly active, crash, get better, feel great, be madly active, crash etc. … it’s actually a vicious spiral in a downward direction. So each time you crash things are just that little bit worse, and you don’t get quite so much better.

Well, I’m glad I KNOW this, and I know what to do about it. Now all I have to do is actually DO it … which, alas, is much easier said than done!

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A bit about me

My name is not Pollyanna and I'm not a penguin. If you'd not worked out the last bit you should probably stop reading this and seek out a psychologist.

This is a blog about me and rheumatoid arthritis - sounds like fun, huh? Well I'm hoping it'll be a bit more fun than it sounds - hence the Pollyanna part. I'm going to try to stay positive about it and play 'Pollyanna's glad game' - finding reasons to be cheerful basically.

If you really want to know more see the 'About me' page.

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